Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: social drama lacks impact
Comment: **1/2
Here we go again - yet another of those multi-storied social dramas set in the racial and cultural crazy-quilt that is modern-day Los Angeles. Falling somewhere on the quality scale between the profound "Grand Canyon" on the one end and the dreadful "Crash" on the other, "Crossing Over" relates a half dozen or so interlocking tales centered around the issue of immigration.
Harrison Ford is a compassionate INS agent who goes beyond the call of duty to help an undocumented single mother and her young son; Ashley Judd is an immigration defense attorney who wants to adopt a young African girl who's already spent 23 months in a detention center, the victim of a mountain of bureaucratic red tape; and Melody Khazae is a Muslim high school student whose seeming sympathy for the jihadist cause may make it impossible for her to remain in the country. And as if to prove that not all targets of immigration policy are ethnic minorities, Alice Eve is a blonde Australian actress who's having a dickens of a time renewing her visitor's visa. Also in the cast is Ray Liotta as an unprincipled, opportunistic adjudications officer who agrees to smooth over the actress`s visa-renewal problems if she`ll only sleep with him.
Though no one can deny that it starts off with the best of intentions, "Crossing Over" leaves much to be desired both as a human drama and as a social document. In an effort to weave the disparate narrative strands into a coherent whole, writer/director Wayne Kramer has intercut his scenes with endless birds`-eye-views of the city, a technique that does little to enhance the fluidity of the storytelling. And despite the best efforts of a dedicated cast, the movie never inspires us to care about the people or issues it`s laying out before us. In fact, "Crossing Over" errs in the opposite direction of the overwrought "Crash" by rarely displaying any genuine passion for its subject, seeming instead to be simply going through the motions to make its points.
Perhaps as a result of the limited screen time allotted to each character, no one individual emerges from the pack to engage our sympathy or interest. The characters feel more like pawns in a polemicist's exercise than fully-rounded people in their own right. And there's a scene involving a convenience store holdup that is every bit as contrived and credibility-defying as anything in "Crash."
But, hey, give "Crossing Over" a little credit. It's the only movie I know of that gives a nod to the Internet Movie Database (known by most of us as imdb). Surely, it gets some points for that!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful movie for our times
Comment: This movie is an extremely thoughtful comment on the immigration issues facing this country today. With skillful directing, this movie takes us inside the lives of U.S. Immigration agents and several legal and illegal immigrants, telling each of their stories from a unique perspective. Harrison Ford takes a nice turn as a conflicted immigration agent torn between duty and morality, who sees each immigration story as unique and shows more heart than most of his fellow officers. What I find most interesting is that this almost semi-documentary script gives us an intimate look into the lives of those on all sides of the immigration debate, and shows us why we need to be a bit more tolerant in our attitudes on a case-by-case basis. The movie also paints a beautiful picture of the cultural diversity of those who come to this country, and how far some are willing to go in order to remain here. It also reminds us what American citizenship often means to those who weren't born here. It is a very thought-provoking movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Crossing over DVD
Comment: This story could be true, and people suffer to reach freedom. The film finish leaving a empty feeling. Harrison Ford acted as a dead pan face Immigration officer. it is a good movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best films!!!!!
Comment: I just happen to love this movie, it shows you what people give up for the American dream.. This show centers on a few main points the ICE agent with a heart, the Mother whose is just working to support her son and help her parents back home, the immigration office whose tries to get some on the side and falls in love, the young woman who just wants a Green Card and lowers her morality to get it, the young boy who goes the wrong way and is also helped by another ICE agent to go on the right path and alot more happens in the film you just have to see it for yourself...
Customer Rating:
Summary: What happened to this movie?
Comment: What could have been a good movie, falls apart with the bizarre plot that tried to have too much in it. While that might works for such films as Shortcuts, Crash, or Traffic, it doesn't work here. The movie was also very choppy, I suspect there were some crazy choices made during editing. Perhaps the film in its original form would have been pretty good. Anyway, it just didn't work. Also, the soundtrack and background music is HORRIBLE and very distracting in several parts. What a waste of money and a good topic (immigration issues).
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